


The Painting in the Parlor

by Dernhelm



Category: Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms, Sherlock Holmes (Downey films)
Genre: AO3 1 Million, Angst, Drabble, Friendship, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Loss, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-16
Updated: 2014-02-16
Packaged: 2018-01-12 15:59:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1191063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dernhelm/pseuds/Dernhelm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mary quietly observes her new husband's manner of mourning.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Painting in the Parlor

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little something I whipped up after watching _A Game of Shadows_ last night, to celebrate AO3 1 Million. This scenario may also be applicable across other versions of Sherlock Holmes, but I have not read all the stories (yet) or seen enough of the shows to assume the details.

John dreams of waterfalls.

He doesn’t speak of his nightmares, nor does he have to. Mary doesn’t require her husband’s deductive talents to discern what wakes him in a cold sweat every night. She has a wife’s insight.

The painting in the parlor gives him away. It’s a simple landscape—a merry cascade splashing into a green valley—but John slows as he passes it, searching. She knows what he sees hidden between the brush strokes: two bodies entwined in the intimacy of enmity, tumbling into misty oblivion.

Quietly, she replaces the piece with a pastoral.

John’s dreams remain unchanged.


End file.
